The use of insulative ice, food and beverage containers is generally well-known in the art.
In recent years smaller polyfoamed containers have been widely marketed. However, such prior art containers suffer the drawback of having a high shipping volume thus increasing shipping and marketing costs. It is also known that the tops of such prior art containers often do not provide an effective insulative seal for their intended use.
The use of foldable container-related corrugated fiberboard articles is also known in the prior art. However, such prior art systems typically require overly complex assembly procedures and yet do not result in a stable folded end product.
The prior art patents presently known to the inventor herein to be related to this application are listed as follows: U.S. Pat. No. 2,581,100 issued to Hennessy on Jan. 1, 1952; U.S. Pat. No. 3,261,619 issued to Norgaard on July 19, 1966.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ice, food or beverage container which may be shipped in a flat knockdown position and yet be readily assembled at the retail level by persons unfamiliar with such items.
It is a further object of the invention to demonstrate a disposable container which is made of a highly economical material such as corrugated fiberboard.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a container with a greatly reduced shipping volume to reduce shipping costs and thereby provide savings to the ultimate consumer.
It is a still further object of the invention to set forth a disposable container for foods, ice or beverages which provides an insulating effect by reason of the inherent corrugated fiberboard air cell structure.
It is a further object to provide an easily foldable one-piece container which has its components configured such that a high degree of structural integrity is achieved as compared to prior art systems.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features of novelty characterizing the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.